The release of the Windows Server 2019 family has not gone well for Microsoft. Hitting RTM in September 2018 (1809), the release became available through the different distribution channels (VL, MPN, Visual Studio) from late October 2018. It was promptly pulled from the public domain and re-packaged.

Background

With Windows Server 2019, Microsoft chose to skip the RTM phase and sent the code directly to General Availability (GA). The mainstream Windows Server 1809 branch was blighted – a not necessarily fairly – by a widely publicised data-loss bug. Under some circumstances, Known Folder Redirects under upgrade installs of Windows 10 1809 would erase the contents of the target. As a precautionary measure, Microsoft withdrew Windows Server 2019 due to it sharing the same code base as Windows 10. Reissuing it, and Windows 10 with fixes on 13th November 2018.

Despite this, there have been a spate of other reported issues in the Windows Server 2019 release. Examples include

Third party OEMs having seemingly been caught by surprise by the release of a new Server OS. Creating a situation of having immature or no driver infrastructure in place yet (e.g. Intel RSTe CPU utilisation issues using 2016 drivers)

After installing Hyper-V Server from the ISO, the Windows Boot Loader will always an operating system selection list on some UEFI systems

Microsoft were vocally chided by the user community for taking until 17th January 2019 to restore the evaluation ISO for the regular release of Windows Server 2019. As well as for failing to comment on the situation with Hyper-V Server 2019. This irked many IT professionals as they lost the Christmas testing period. Interfering with opportunities for initial product evaluation ahead of the New Year. The delay will cause a deferral of adoption in many organisations; being especially true for Exchange Server 2019, which requires Windows Server 2019 as a pre-requisite.

Unlike the Windows Server 2019 evaluation ISO, the Hyper-V Server 2019 did not return and to date (2nd March 2019) it remains unavailable.

Hyper-V Server 2019 1809

As with the full version of Windows Server 2019. Hyper-V Server 2019 was only released for a matter of days before its withdrawal.

Hyper-V Server 2019’s shared codebase means that it is impacted by the redirected folders bug. However as a rule, you should not be upgrade installing Hyper-V Server. See my article on upgrade installing Hyper-V Server for reasons why this is not advised.

Remote Desktop for Administration does not work at all in the release [1][2]. This has been resolved via KB4482887 from 2019-02 Patch Tuesday.NB: Don’t forget to enable the firewall rule:Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop"

When installed in Hyper-V, the Virtual Machine Connection display fails to draw correctly, leading to frequent display corruption.

Windows Server 2019 has had a rough start. Many commentators are expressing concerns that Microsoft does not yet possess the experience to successfully navigate the SaaS landscape with Windows. Observationally, QA has been in decline at Microsoft for some years, but up until now we have not seen such deficits impact the mainstream Server ecosystem.

With Microsoft posting a resolution to the Remote Desktop for Administration issue via KB4482887. It is logical that Microsoft will seek to re-release Hyper-V Server 2019 in coming days and weeks. Microsoft for their part have made no comment on the issues with Hyper-V Server 2019, or any planning for its re-release. So this remains speculation, but the community may see it under a 1903 re-packaging hopefully as early as next week.

In the interim, you should continue to avoid using the original release ISO in your test labs.